Goa beach shack owner called dead Russian teenager: Police

Panaji, May 19 (IANS) The mobile phone of Russian teenager Elena Sukhonova, who was found dead on railway tracks near here under mysterious circumstances, had several missed calls from a Calangute beach shack owner, police said. Superintendent of Police (North) Tony Fernandes told IANS that a Nokia mobile phone belonging to Elena, which was recovered from the death scene had several phone calls from Vishant Kudnekar, who runs the O’Pinhal Buckingham shack at Calangute beach.

“We are trying to get to the bottom of the matter. There were several missed calls on Elena’s phone from Kudnekar, some time prior to her death,” Fernandes said.

Interestingly, Kudnekar has already applied for anticipatory bail May 14, but was denied the same. Elena was a regular visitor to Kudnekar’s shack and according to witnesses, was well acquainted with Kudnekar.

The police are having a tough time trying to establish the sequence of events leading to the death of the Russian teenager on May 8. Fernandes added that the police had also summoned a group of Pune-based tourists, who were in Goa in the last week of April.

“She had spoken to them in the last couple of days before her death. We are trying to find out how they knew her and if they had called her to Pune,” he said, hinting at the possibility that Elena may have been trying to travel to Pune when she met her end.

Elena’s mutilated body was found along a railway track nearly 30 km from here.

Hasty attempts by the police to establish that Elena died of an accidental fall from a train were exposed by a senior Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL) official who said that it was impossible for a person to slip from a train and fall under its wheels.

Several Russian tourists, who spent a few hours early on May 8, have also said that Elena made no mention of travelling to Mumbai.

The police had initially claimed that Elena’s passport was found near the body, whereas a seizure memo signed by the Mapusa police inspector Manjunath Dessai states the passport was recovered from the hotel room she was staying in.